Find out exactly what a stock pays you to own it. Enter the share price and annual dividend per share to get the current yield — and add your own cost basis and share count to see your personal yield on cost and projected income.
Answer first: dividend yield is the annual dividend per share divided by the current share price, expressed as a percentage. This dividend yield calculator does that division for you and also computes yield on cost — the same dividend measured against the price you actually paid — plus the dollar income your position throws off each year, quarter and month.
Dividend yield = Annual dividend per share ÷ Share price × 100
Example: a stock trades at $80 and pays $0.80 per quarter, i.e. $3.20 per year. Yield = 3.20 ÷ 80 = 4.00%. Own 100 shares and you collect $320 a year — about $80 per quarter or $26.67 per month on average.
Yield answers the renter's question of investing: what does this asset pay me while I hold it? A 4% yield means every $10,000 invested produces roughly $400 of cash per year before taxes, without selling a single share. That makes yield the quickest way to compare income stocks against each other, against bonds, and against savings rates — as long as you remember the number moves every time the price does.
The quoted yield always uses today's price, which is what a new buyer gets. Yield on cost uses your purchase price, which is what your original dollars are earning now. Suppose you bought at $40 and the company has doubled its payout over the years to $3.20: the market yield is 4%, but your yield on cost is 8%. Neither number is "wrong" — the market yield tells you what fresh money earns, while yield on cost shows the payoff of holding a dividend grower for years. Dividend-growth investors track it as motivation; valuation decisions should still use the current yield.
Yield has a dark side: because price sits in the denominator, a collapsing stock looks more generous. A company whose shares fall from $80 to $32 suddenly "yields" 10% — right up until the board cuts the dividend that the business can no longer afford. Before buying any yield above roughly 6–7%, check the payout ratio (dividends as a share of earnings), whether earnings are shrinking, and whether the dividend has ever been cut. A sustainable 3% that grows every year usually beats a fragile 9% that gets slashed.
Most U.S. companies pay quarterly, so the convention is to multiply the latest quarterly dividend by four (the "forward" yield). Some quotes instead sum the last twelve months of payments (the "trailing" yield). The two differ whenever the dividend was recently raised or a special one-off dividend was paid. This calculator takes whatever annual figure you give it, so you can test either convention — just be consistent when comparing two stocks.
Reality check: dividends are never guaranteed — companies can cut or suspend them at any time, and yields ignore taxes and inflation. This is an educational calculator, not financial advice or a recommendation to buy any security. Verify payout figures with the company's investor-relations page, and see the U.S. SEC at investor.gov for the basics.
Model reinvestment with the dividend reinvestment (DRIP) calculator, check payout safety with the payout ratio calculator, and read what is dividend yield? for the concept from first principles. The full dividend & DRIP calculator projects income over many years.
Last updated July 2, 2026 · Written by Mustafa Bilgic. Educational only — not financial advice.
Divide the annual dividend per share by the current share price, then multiply by 100. A stock trading at $80 that pays $3.20 per year yields 3.20 ÷ 80 = 4%. If the company pays quarterly, multiply the quarterly dividend by four first.
Yield on cost divides today's annual dividend by the price YOU originally paid rather than the current market price. If you bought at $40 and the stock now pays $3.20, your yield on cost is 8% even though new buyers only get 4%. It shows how a growing dividend rewards long holding periods.
No. An unusually high yield often means the share price has crashed because investors expect the dividend to be cut — a yield trap. Check the payout ratio and the company's earnings trend before trusting a double-digit yield.
Yes. The dividend itself is usually fixed each quarter, but the share price moves daily, so the yield moves in the opposite direction of the price: when the price falls the yield rises, and vice versa.